Wheelchairs and Exercise

All of us need strength in our core.  Those muscles in our abdomens and the muscles that run from your neck to your lower back (paraspinal muscles.)

When you are in a wheelchair it is just as important for you to keep up your core strength. It helps you with balance, your posture and a wide range of movements.

The good news is that a wheelchair doesn’t need to hold you back.  You may use muscles to get around in your wheelchair and that’s great but there’s more you can do.

The exercises don’t have to be difficult and you can do them at your own pace and modify as much as you need.

Many you can do with or without weights and they are all designed to be done when you are seated.

Below are the names of some of the exercises.  We will share a link at the bottom with details if you would like to investigate and try some.

Seated Forward Reach

Seated Side Bend

Seated trunk rotation

Wheelchair push-ups

Here is the link:  www.healthline.com/health/senior-health/core-exercises-for-wheelchair-users

Private Home Health Care understands the independence that you can have with a wheelchair.  Working to keep your core strong will help you continue that independence.

Wellelderly Day

Monday is Wellelderly Day, a day to promote healthy lifestyles for seniors.  It actually kicks off a full week of helping seniors live a long and full life.

Private Home Health Care loves this day.  We love anything that helps seniors to be their best selves!

Technically you are a senior if you are 65 or older.  Not everyone feels they fall into the senior category by the timeline.  

You may feel well and on top of your game at 65 and that’s great.  Keeping that feeling is the key.

Eating a healthy diet with lean meats, vegetables, fruits and grains is how your body stays in good shape.

Exercising.  You should try and get around 150 minutes in a week of a combination of strength training and aerobic activity.  

Light weights and swimming or walking are ways to keep active.

Keeping an active, healthy and happy mind is another piece. 

Dr Dale Anderson started Well-elderly day and week.  He wrote a book called “Never Act Your Age” and he believes that happiness and laughter are key.

Having hobbies, friends to chat with and activities that give you joy and happiness go a long way to helping to balance your life.  

Today and during this week, if you are a senior, take a look at your life and see if you need to make any changes to help keep you happy physically and mentally.

Seize the Day (and Week)!

Save a What Day?

On this day the goal is to help with a fear of a common “living thing” found in households.

It comes in varying sizes, lives often in basements and attics and sometimes travels to rooms in your house.  When you see if your first instinct is usually to remove it forever.

Any ideas?  

Spiders!  Yes it’s Save a Spider Day!  What?

Private Home Health Care is working on helping with our arachnophobia but it feels kind of creepy to talk about the good things about a spider.  Here goes.

There are about 3,700 different types of spiders in the US.  Only two of those are poisonous.  (That’s quite a few spiders!)

Spiders feed on mosquitos, flies and cockroaches so could be considered your household pest control.  

(Feeling a little bit better?)

Your household spiders eat approximately 2,000 bugs a year. 

(That’s a lot of other bugs that you never see!)

Spiders keep to themselves so they are low-maintenance.  They only come out visibly once in a while, maybe after a bug we can’t see.

(Ready to just let the spider be when it appears in your room?)

Getting a bit from a spider is actually very rare. In Australia a study of 750 insect bites showed that only 44 came from spiders.

(Ready to view them as guardian angels now?)

The people behind this day are very hopeful that with education your inclination when you see a spider will be to get it in a jar and let it go outdoors.

It sounds like potentially a good plan.  What do you think?

Registered Dietitian Nutritionist Day

Have you ever needed guidance or help on your diet?  Did you use a nutritionist or a registered dietitian nutritionist?

Private Home Health Care knows that both a nutritionist and a registered dietitian nutritionist can be helpful and appropriate in different circumstances.

It can be helpful to understand the difference between the two.

A Nutritionist provides advice on food and nutrition as it relates to your health. They have a great background in diet and nutrition and can be extremely helpful.  

Their title may not include formal training or certification.  

A Registered Dietitian Nutritionist or R.D.N is a licensed health care professional.  They have regulations to follow and they must keep up their credentials.

Their background allows them to give information, identify nutritional issues and provide solutions.

An R.D.N can work in multiple settings.  They are in hospitals, school districts, long-term card facilities and sports facilities.

Their job is to provide in-depth nutritional counseling, do assessments and even help with meal prep among other services.

There are many different types of dietitians.  Clinical, community, foodservice, pediatric and gerontology to name a few.

The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics created this day to recognise the important works of Registered Dietitian Nutritionists.

Protein and Seniors

Have you heard that protein is an important part of your diet?  It’s been in the news a lot lately and is all the rage.

This fact is true and for seniors it holds true. The trick for seniors is making it “stick.”

It is not unusual for you to lose muscle mass, strength and physical ability as you age.  

We’ve talked about the need to exercise with both strength training and aerobic activity.  It can all be done in moderation but regularity is key.

One thing that happens as you age is that your body becomes resistant to absorbing the protein your body needs.  That’s where the exercise comes in.  It helps.

The amount of protein for each person depends on their overall weight.  The suggestion is that for each pound of weight you should have 1-1.2 grams of protein.

Eating foods high in protein and spreading those foods throughout a day is a great way to add it.

High sources of protein include beef, low fat Greek yogurt, salmon, chicken, cooked lentils and almonds.  Meat portions are 3 oz and 1 c for the yogurt and lentils, ⅓ cup for almonds.

Other sources to add are low fat milk, chickpeas, eggs, cooked oatmeal and spinach, green peas, avocados and apricots.

Additionally there are also many brands of protein shakes that you can buy just be watchful of additives and sugar content.  You can also make your own protein drinks.

Once again, to get the most out of protein, exercise for 150 minutes per week and plan menus so that you have some protein at each meal.

Private Home Health Care knows how important it is for all of us to take care of ourselves as we age.  Do your best to help yourself with a well-rounded exercise plan and healthy diet.

Festival of Owls Weekend

This coming weekend in Houston, TX there are educational activities and entertainment from owl enthusiasts.

The weekend started because of an injured Great Horned Owl and a woman in Austin who cared for her and used her to educate people about owls.

We agree that owls are so fascinating.  These predators have so many different qualities that make them special and oh so interesting.

You will find 19 different owl species in North America.  Many are in local woods where you can find and observe them.  Pretty cool birds.

So much of their makeup allows them to be fierce predators.  They eat voles, mice and some even eat smaller owls.

Who needs symmetrical ears, not owls.  Asymmetrical ears allow owls to find sounds with great precision and in multiple dimensions.

You have seen eyeballs on owls right?  Well it turns out they are really eyeballs as we know them because they don’t move. Built in binoculars.

No eyeballs, no problem.  Their heads can rotate 270 degrees to search an area.

Barn owls swallow their prey whole, about 1,000 mice each year, skins, bones and all.  Gulp.

Owls have four toes, two that face forward and two that face backwards.  To walk and grip one back toe can pivot to help.

There are many more fun facts about owls.  One last one.

The smallest owl in the world is an Elf Owl, 5-6 inches tall and about 1-½ ounces.

The largest owl is the Great Gray Owl which can grow up to 32 inches tall.  

Private Home Health Care finds owls very intriguing.  We wish we could travel to Austin this weekend.  Instead we’ll keep our eyes out now and in the Spring for owls in woods near us.

March 6 – A Day of Unplugging

Private Home Health Care wants you to know of a very important day coming this Friday.  A day you need to prepare for since it changes your way of life temporarily.

In this digital world of Android and iPhones, smart screens and streaming stations on your television the challenge is to spend time unplugged from all of these devices.

The full challenge is from sunrise to sundown.  Can you do it?   

When you unplug you are supposed to go outside, have coffee with a friend, gather a group and play games or another activity.  

Make human connections with family, friends and the outdoors.  You should schedule it ahead of time and then leave your phone at home.

If you are a teacher, challenge yourself to teach without a smart screen, chrome books or iPads.

We know that most days you carry your phone 24/7. Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and X call you!

Need to pay a bill with Venmo or Apple Pay?  Skip Friday and pay it on Thursday or Saturday.

See why we needed to prepare you now for this? You really need to get your head around it.

Take some deep breaths and set your mind to it.  If you can do a full day, try half a day.  If that’s too much, try it for an hour or two. You might find that it relaxes you.

If you are intrigued, check out this website for more information and encouragement:  www.globaldayofunplugging.org

Essential Tremors

In March one goal for the month is to raise awareness about a condition called Essential Tremors.  

Private Home Health Care thinks this is a worthy goal.  Have you heard of this?

Essential Tremors is a neurological condition, affecting your nervous system. You get rhythmic shaking that you are unable to control.

This affects more people over the age of 40 but you can get them at any age.

Generally, it happens with your hands while you are doing a task.  Your hands may shake involuntarily tying your shoes or drinking water.  It can also affect your head.

It often happens on one side of your body and it can start slowly and worsen over time.  Emotion stress, fatigue, caffeine or extreme temperatures can exacerbate it.

While the tremors sound similar to Parkinson’s Disease they are actually quite different.

If you have Parkinson’s Disease the tremors affect the hands but also the legs, chin and other body parts.  Your hands are resting when it happens as well.  

Essential tremors can worsen and become severe for some people but in general it is not a dangerous condition.

You may find that occupational or physical therapy can be helpful.

Your doctor can also help you manage symptoms with beta blockers, anti-seizure medications, tranquilizers, and nerve blocking injections.

If you have any suspicions about starting to have this condition be sure to reach out to a medical professional.  Early diagnosis can be very helpful.

Snowshoeing

On this next to last day of February and with all the snow we have in the Northeast, today we are thinking about snowshoeing.

Have any of you ever had the experience?  What did you think?  Was it easy or hard?  Did you have a lovely sunny day?  How long did you snowshoe?

Snowshoeing has been around for thousands of years.  

More recently, in the hundreds of years, we have the indigenous people of North America to thank for passing on the activity.

The Athaspascan from the Northwest Coast, the Algonquin and the Cree people from the Great Lakes and the Ojibwa from Canada all had a type of snow shoe.

Snow shoes had a purpose:  to allow people to travel long distances over difficult terrain.

Today snow shoeing is a fun and full body workout for those who try it.  With all the snow we have you can work a whole fitness routine into a snowshoeing session.

Mental Health

Being outdoors can lower stress and give you an overall sense of well-being.

Cardiovascular

Your heart rate elevates.

The lungs expand.

Circulation is improved

Your stamina is increased.

Muscles

Quadriceps, hamstrings and calves are engaged.

Using poles adds workouts to your arms, shoulders and back.

Cardio Workout

It’s a low-impact workout compared to a traditional cardio workout.

Calories

Each snowshoeing trip helps cut those calories.

It’s the same calorie burn as in skiing and snowboarding.

There are a wide variety of prices on snowshoes.  You can get a pair for as low as $49 or as high as $149.  Your boot should fit easily into any of them.

Private Home Health Care had a snowshoeing activity on a beautiful sunny day.  It was thirty minutes through woods, very quiet and pristine.  

It was a full-body workout for certain, but a fun activity.  Find a trail and try it!  It won’t disappoint.

A Long Legacy

Private Home Health Care knows that history is an important fabric in American life.  

In 1976 Gerald Ford signed into law that the month of February would be Black History month.  Ford however, was not the impetus for the commemoration.

The movement of keeping the culture and contributions from African Americans alive started with Dr. Carter G. Woodson.

Dr. Woodson was the son of former slaves, born in Virginia.  His education was delayed working on coal mines but he certainly made up for any lost time.

He worked his way through school, attended college and became a teacher and school administrator.  

Dr. Woodson went so far as to become the second African American to earn a PhD from Harvard University.

His establishment of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH) happened in 1926.

That same year he began Negro History week.  Today we have Black History month, commemorating its 100th year thanks to Dr. Carter Woodson.

Are you wondering why the month of February was important?

February is the birthday month for both Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln, both seen as crucial to Black Freedom.

We hope that as we celebrate the 250th year of our country we also remember the 100 years of keeping alive the culture and contributions of our fellow African Americans.